Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding...1

Oh, the wonderful feeling of being at the end of your own power, and knowing God's power has no end! The feeling of trust and reliance upon Him is so wonderful! As you sit there in your own helplessness, you know One more powerful than you is in charge.

But... then there are those other circumstances... you know, the ones where God whispers in your ear that He *has* this, keep your hands off. When you CAN take action, but God tells you not to, that's another matter entirely! "I could (fill in the blank) and that would fix this," runs through your head as your patience wears thin. And then the ever-helpful Satan (not!) keeps whispering things like, "You can't wait for God to get around to this" and "He may never handle this! And then what will you do?" Oh, how I wish Satan came with a "mute" button! Trusting in God is a lot easier when that's your only choice.

Sarah, of "Sarah and Abraham" fame, must have heard the same things as she waited for the child God promised, especially as the years rolled on. I'm sure the fact that she was biologically too old for a baby only turned up Satan's volume. Finally, she decided to give God a helping hand. And we all know what happened after that, and it wasn't (and still isn't) good.

I read a passage from Sarah Young's beautiful devotional, "Jesus Calling"2 dealing with this desire to understand how God is going to accomplish what He has promised. "Understanding will never bring you peace. That's why I have instructed you to trust in Me, not in your understanding." We don't comprehend how God is going to resolve our dilemma, or when, for that matter. And sometimes we find it hard to trust that He has a reason and a purpose for allowing the struggle, and for intervening in His perfect timing. I believe our desire to fully understand makes us all the more vulnerable to what Satan has to say.

If you have something that you're waiting on God for and you're tempted to give him a helping hand, remember that you could be creating your own Ishmael in the process. Thank Goodness, Satan does have a mute button - it's that one labeled T-R-U-S-T. God is faithful. God can be trusted. God can be relied upon to carry us through until, in His excellent timing, He handles it. There's a reason for the wait. Be faithful and be trusting in the meantime.

Hello! I'm Karen, a "50-something" located in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I'm a lab technologist by day, and by night, well, a house-cleaning, dinner-cooking, webmaster, family historian, blog-author, baseball-watching, facebooking grandma.